As for the people of Fatwa...

As for the people of Fatwa, I consider the verdicts of Askafi, Ibn Abi Aqeel, Shaikh Mufeed, Sayyid Murtadha Alamul Huda and Shaikh Tusi." Evidently, Muhaqqiq Hilli, despite his high regard for the earlier Ulama and for their independent opinions, excludes them from those who he calls "the people of Fatwa".

This is because the earlier Ulama wrote books in the form of collections of Hadith, indirectly indicating their opinions and verdicts by the selection of those Traditions which they considered sound. Their works never came out in the form of clear and direct fatwa. Now we will mention the Jurist consults of the early period; those who witnessed Ghaybat­ as­Sughra: l. Ali b. Babawayh Qummi, died in 329 AH., and was buried in Qum. His son, the famous Shaikh Sadooq is buried in the city of Ray.

What must be noted is that while the son is famous as muhaddith (traditionalist), the father is a renowned faqih, and a man of fatwa. Sometimes, reference is made to both of them as sadooqain meaning two Sadooqs. Another great jurist, who was the contemporary of Ali b. Babawayh Qummi, or perhaps a bit senior, is Ayyashi Samarkandi. Though he is better known for his tafseer, he was a man of diverse capabilities, having made an appreciable contribution to Fiqh.

Ibn al­Nadeem in his al­Fihrist says that Ayyashi's works on Fiqh were well known in Khurasan. Unfortunately, we have no access to any of his books on Fiqh. It seems they have all perished. Ayyashi was originally a Sunni who later converted to become a Shi’a. He was a rich man, having inherited considerable wealth from his father. But he invested all his wealth in collecting books, copying important manuscripts and in establishing colleges for training his students.

Some chroniclers have included Shaikh Jaffer b. Qawlawayh among the Fuqaha, considering him to have lived during the times of Ali b. Babawayh Qummi and Ghaybat as-Sughra. They have also mentioned him as a student of the well known Sa'd b. Abdullah Ashari. But this is an error, since Ibn Qawlawayh was the teacher of Shaikh Mufeed, and his death occurred in either 367 or 368 AH. As such, he cannot be counted as a contemporary of Ali b. Babawayh, nor among the Ulama of Ghaybat as-Sughra.

The fact is that it was his father Muhammad b. Qawlawayh who lived during Ghaybat as-Sughra. Ibn Abi Aqeel Ummani. This Umman is on the coast of Yemen, and therefore he was also known as Yemeni.